


world into water

by orphan_account



Category: X Factor RPF
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gender or Sex Swap, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-26
Updated: 2011-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 13:03:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>it turned out to be a little bit more assumed-dating than pretend-dating</p>
            </blockquote>





	world into water

There is something eerily easy about falling into the pattern with Aiden. It's not planned, and they didn't even get along so great in that first moment because Aiden was catty and Matt was self-conscious and a washcloth of the lowest variety. But Aiden's always catty when she's on her period, and Matt's got some actual self-confidence now that he's made it through to the house, and then they realize they have a whole lot of things in common, and what happens is, they end up spending every waking second they can together.  
  
One week in, Liam sidles up to Matt, puts his head on Matt's lap and stares up at him with huge-eyed wonder and a hint of disappointment. "You really are straight, huh?" he asks, not flinching when Matt touches his neck.  
  
Matt blinks, and then Liam's half-lidded eyes move over to where Louis is sitting on Aiden's lap, and he says, "Oh, no, no no no. I mean, _yeah_ , I'm straight, mostly, but not with Aiden."  
  
"Oh," Liam says, and watches Louis wriggle around and turn to Aiden, pretend-kissing her, and says, with a sharp little twist, "So you wouldn't mind if, say, Louis made a move?"  
  
Matt's hand tightens on Liam's neck, but he doesn't say anything, and he doesn't need to because Aiden deserves someone wonderful and spirited and funny and _her own age_ , and Liam's right, he needs to stop being a hypocrite.   
  
Two days later, Aiden takes his hand when they're out on a McDonalds run, and the paparazzi get a good shot of that. It blows up in their faces hours later; they're in Simon's office the next morning at seven am, dealing with it.  
  
"This stops right now," Simon tells them, pointing at them. "You tell the press you think of each other as brother and sister, and that's it. No more flirting, or hand-holding, or whatever it is you two think you're doing. It's bad press, it will be bad for your careers if you do make it further than next week, and I don't need to mention it's bad for the show. So pull it together."  
  
Simon turns out to be right, which isn't entirely unexpected. A few fan letters flutter into the house, and Aiden gets a nasty little surprise in the form of threats and swear words thrown her way. Matt feels horrible. He finds Aiden in her room with Cher and Rebecca, looking a little lost. Matt loves her enthusiasm, the way she's always running around, dancing to a beat only she can hear, playing ball on the hallways. She looks quiet now, and that's just not right.  
  
"Sorry," Matt says, touching her wrist. Rebecca and Cher leave quietly. "I didn't mean for this to happen. It's just a handful of weirdos, Aiden. It'll be fine. Things will blow over."  
  
Aiden looks up at him from underneath her perfectly styled quiff and smiles. Her eyes are sparkling again, grateful and relieved both. "I was worried you'd avoid me after this," she tells him. "After Simon calling us out and now the fans proving him right."  
  
"It's not 'the fans'," Matt tells her, sitting down. He fights the urge to roll his eyes. "We're well rid of _them_ anyway." He nods at the letters.  
  
Aiden takes his wrist in her small hand and squeezes. "Does that mean I get to touch your manboobs in public again?" She smirks.  
  
Matt shoves her with his elbow. "Hey. Don't talk about my perfectly sculpted chest that way. You know you want a piece of this hot body."  
  
Aiden laughs and puts her head on his shoulder, sighing happily.  
  
They never stop being friends, but they're more careful in public from then on. It's so different; Matt thought that it would be enough if they weren't fucking, that people wouldn't read more into it than what it is: a great friendship, a lot of love. But he realizes he was wrong now. Just friends doesn't exist for boy and girl, and for a while he wishes Aiden were a boy just so that they could get away with loving one another without anyone assuming they're fucking.  
  
But that's not how it works. They can't hug after a few internet trash magazines do side-by-side analysis of all the hugs they've shared, compared to hugs they've given other people. Aiden gets all sad for her next video diary when Simon forbids her from mentioning Matt at all, even though she's Matt's biggest fan and always tells people to vote for him. Matt isn't quite as obvious about their friendship, so he doesn't get the muzzle just yet.   
  
He has a feeling it won't be long, though.   
  
Then, five weeks into living together at the mansion, a rumor starts that Aiden is dating Louis, some source claiming they've been caught making out, and then someone leaks a photo of a kiss, and all hell breaks loose. On the way from the XFactor house to the final auditions for the live show, a bunch of girls are waiting outside. Some throw raw eggs through the barriers that have been put up, a lot of them chant horrible words, and there are even a few signs calling Aiden a cheater and a slut and worse.  
  
Aiden looks wretched, and Louis takes her hand and pulls her into a car, which makes it _worse_ , shrill screams from their crowd of observers, and Matt thinks, _oh fuck_ , because this is a disaster. He recognizes the photo, of course, it was after one of the live-shows, it isn't what it looks like (unless Aiden has been keeping a pretty huge secret from him, which he doubts). He pulls it up again on his cell phone, and it's not very well-lit, and the angle makes it look like it's a make-out party when Matt knows it was barely a congratulatory, happy peck on the lips.  
  
When they get into the studio, Aiden is on his arm, clinging to him, wide-eyed and pale. "Matt," she says. "It's not - I swear it's not what they say, I wouldn't."  
  
Matt reaches for her face and puts their foreheads together like they sometimes do when they realize they're both through and on to another round, or when they've hit a particularly good run during one of their jam sessions. She takes a deep breath, stops talking, and calms down. "I know," Matt tells her, and traces her cheek with his thumb. "Don't worry. But hey." He pulls away.  
  
Aiden's looking at him, smiling again, like she never smiles at anyone else, and Matt's heart clenches with what he's about to say. "Hey, if you _wanted_ to date someone, though. I wouldn't mind, you know that, right? I would never mind. I want you to be happy."  
  
Aiden stares at him for a moment, unsure, visibly floundering, before she pulls her shoulders back to stand straight and says, almost without any shake to her voice, "Thanks. You too, Matt. I want you to be happy too." And then she flees.   
  
She's gorgeous, tall and maybe too curvy to ever be a model, but with that face, she could conquer any red carpet, and with that voice, she will conquer any venue. Matt watches her leave and thinks to himself that he's a tool of epic proportions to let her get away. But she's eighteen, and she doesn't know what she wants, for all the bravado she shows to the world, and he's not going to take away the one stable adult relationship she has here for the opportunity to get in her pants.  
  
  
Aiden gets the boot in the next live show, and everyone is shocked. Matt feels like someone stole his stomach, reeling, when Aiden comes off stage, walking stiffly, looking utterly miserable and resigned.  
  
"Aiden," Matt hears himself say, but she just looks at him, hard and unrelenting, and says, "Don't."  
  
They part like that, even though Matt wants to say more, tell her how sorry he is. He's not sure what happened, or why she's lost out. If it has anything to do with the whole press debacle, the cruel, twisted target for the British media in which she's the resident slut right now, which he could never forgive himself for. He should have stayed away. He shouldn't have become her friend in the first place, except the selfish part inside him is still ecstatic at the fact that he has her home address and phone number and that he knows her mum, who loves him, so that they will never fall out of touch unless they choose to.  
  
She gives one interview afterward, to the other Matt, whom she adores and who's incredibly fair and gracious and lets her get a few things off her chest concerning the Louis-kiss and her relationship with Matt, and after that, a lot of people calm down. And maybe it was the interview straight from Aiden's mouth, or maybe she's no longer interesting now that she's been voted off, but Matt's glad that the focus is off of her.  
  
He calls her a few nights later, shortly before midnight, and says, "I'm sorry."  
  
Aiden laughs. Her laughter is brilliant as always, bright and happy, and she's over the loss already, moving on, like she does. She's a fighter, she's incredible, and he loves her so much, he realizes in that instant, it's hard to bear. "Don't be," she says. "I'll have a great career, with or without the XFactor win, I know I will."  
  
"You will," Matt tells her. "Because you're amazing."  
  
"But until then, let's go get McDonalds food. Can you sneak out?"  
  
  
And so Matt sneaks out, and of course, they get caught again, which makes Simon furious and Matt a little bit gleeful because now apparently, they're 'back together', which is a lot better than Aiden being the jilted whore who seduced two of the most attractive XFactor contestants.   
  
"We were just getting burgers," he protests, "We're honestly not dating or anything."  
  
Simon glares. Then he says, "You know what, I don't even care anymore, because from this moment on, you're dating. Aiden and you, I mean. We're having a press release later today. Call her, let her know. This has been a disaster from start to finish and we should have done this the moment you two sent out those vibes."  
  
"But we're _not_ dating -"  
  
"I don't care if you have to do couple's therapy to get that sorted out, but as of right now, yes, you are. And as her official boyfriend, it is now your job to keep her away from other members of the male sex, be it to be caught flirting, kissing, or screwing them over my desk." Simon turns back to his computer.   
  
Matt looks at his watch and wonders how long he can put off telling Aiden about this before she finds out via TV.  
  
  
Matt calls Aiden's mom. Aiden's mom laughs at him and asks him if he loves her daughter.  
  
"I do," he tells her without hesitation.  
  
She doesn't seem surprised. She just says, "In that case, you have my blessing."  
  
"But we're not dating," Matt tries.  
  
"I know we're not," comes Aiden's voice from the phone.  
  
"Yeah," Matt says, swallowing hard. "About that."  
  
  
Matt falls in love with Aiden the first time he sees her juggling three cups in the air at the bootcamp cafeteria, right in front of the scary kitchen staff everyone is deathly afraid of. When Aiden's done - and all three cups lie in shards on the floor - she bows in a flourish and earns herself laughter and applause from the staff. They're enamoured and don't care a whiff about the china.  
  
He falls in love with Aiden when he watches her Golddigger audition, and then again when he sees her perform live on stage, wearing that intense expression that makes her look like she's going to stab someone through the eyes if they blink. And then when she's done, bouncing and cheerily waving and blowing kisses, a complete contrast.  
  
He falls in love with Aiden's short, swooshy skirts over her knee-high boots and her sweater-sweatpants combination that she loves wearing around the house, when she's not borrowing one of Matt's checkered shirts to wear over her pajama bottoms.   
  
  
Matt kisses her when he wins, right there on the stage, on the lips, for everyone to see, deep and desperate, a first kiss for no one but themselves, and finds her gasping and then leaning into him, giving this to him because he deserves it, even though he probably doesn't deserve it, not really, not for a long time.  
  
"You're an idiot," Aiden tells him later, when Matt's been congratulated by everyone twice and has shown off his single and hugged Rhianna, and Danii, and Simon, and when they've finally found a quiet minute to be by themselves, just the two of them.  
  
"What?" Matt blinks.  
  
"You're an idiot, because I love you too, and we're not _pretend dating_ except for the bit where there hasn't been any action till now, which, I thought you were maybe shy about me seeing your penis or something. I'm not, just for your information. I want to see it. As soon as you're ready."  
  
And fine, maybe, Matt thinks, he was wrong, and Aiden knows exactly what she wants.   
  
"I'm an idiot," he tells her, and gets a hug for his honesty. She touches the small of his back and later, she dances the funky chicken dance with him, and says, "We'll be dancing this at our 80th wedding anniversary, right?"  
  
  
  
\- - - - -


End file.
